


one of us has to win (champion)

by paintmelilacs



Series: valgrace week 2020 [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Character Death, Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Violence, but i didnt write it LMFAO, haha kidding........0_0, im fucking stupid, in my mind it has a happy ending, lowkey sad, no dont die aha ha ur so sexy, pretend like jason never died, theyre dating already, valgrace week aha ha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25022254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintmelilacs/pseuds/paintmelilacs
Summary: Leo and Jason are placed in an arena, but only one can leave alive, who will be the champion?
Relationships: Jason Grace/Leo Valdez
Series: valgrace week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812193
Comments: 11
Kudos: 41
Collections: 2020 Valgrace Week





	one of us has to win (champion)

**Author's Note:**

> mm. so basically im an idiot who had to frantically scroll through tumblr at 4am to find these GODDAMN prompts and just 😊🔫  
> (FUCK I DONT HAVE A FUCKING TUMBLR WTF)
> 
> essentially this was written in one day more or less. and good *god* am i bad at pacing myself.
> 
> this is my first work in valgrace week 2020, the prompt was champion !!

Godly affairs are not something to be toyed with. 

But, like it was a cute yearly family tradition, an ominous message was sent to camp half-blood, demanding they pick up some odd item from Hephaestus’s junk yard. 

What an enthusiastic camp meeting that was.

Leo and Jason had sent out on the mission, not formally a _quest_ , but a mission, to go rescue whatever sentimental hair-clip Hera probably accidentally dropped down to the mortal world.

They’re stopped before that could happen.

Jason and Leo are in the middle of some forest, only semi-lush, but bringing more of a creepy vibe than a snow white one, when suddenly all the noise just....stopped. No birds, no crickets—even the squirrels were nowhere to be found. The silence was foreboding.

And that was weird, but then again, Jason and Leo had seen weirder. They continued to trek along. 

They come to a clearing, it looked like a great place to stop and take a rest break—that is, until a violent ripple went through the ground. The ground starting going through tremors, a form appearing ahead of them.

It was quite clearly a god, based on his statute and sheer size, but not one that Leo recognized. He had greasy black hair pulled into a ponytail, and a long black mustache to match. The god dressed in armor, not a matching set, but a niche collection of spiked shoulder pads and arm bracelets, leaving his bare chest exposed, small thin chains looping around his body. He wore no shoes, only metal cuffs on his ankles.

Beside him, Jason whispered lowly into his ear. “Kratos, god of strength.”

“SON OF HEPHEASTUS, SHOW ME YOUR STRENGTH!” The god yelled.

Leo’s form went rigid and he carefully tiptoed around, pointing a finger to himself. 

“Me? Oh, oh no, i think you got me mixed up with someone else....I’m not Leo, i’m, uh—“ Leo glanced to the trees surrounding them, “—o-oak....ley. Oakley, uhm, leaf....erson.”

Kratos did not look amused.

The ground around them rumbled like a car’s engine starting up, leaves fluttering up from their rest on the ground.

“You dare play with me, boy?” Kratos said, slowly, so they could feel the grit in his words. “I don’t play. Strength is a true man’s test, failing is not an option. My sister, Nike, has already told me of your failures in her endeavors, you must prove her wrong. Prove your strength to me, filthy Hephaestus spawn.”

“Or— _and just hear me out—_ i could run away and you pretend you never saw us—“

Jason slapped a hand over Leo’s mouth. “I’ll take his place.”

Leo whined. “Jason if you’re going to do the whole Hunger Games thing you have to at _least_ do the finger sign—“

“YOU DARE RESIST ME? I SAID THE HEPHAESTUS BOY, DID I NOT?” Leo promptly shut up. “Power comes from yourself, _never someone else._ There is no strength in having someone fight for you.” He spat the words with so much disgust Leo thought he might just vomit.

And then, Jason made the mistake of reaching for his gladuis, and when he did, Kratos—surprisingly quick—hit the hilt of the sword and sent it flying over Jason’s head before he could do anything. It landed somewhere shy of a few hundred feet behind them, piercing the ground with a loud _SHWOOP!_

Kratos threw a weighted punch at Jason’s face seconds later, making a faint crushing noise as his fist met Jason’s the upper part of his cheek.

Leo—despite knowing that you should _never, ever, in a million years, lay your hands on a god—_ pulled on Kratos’ arm to stop him.

“Hey! Stop—don’t, only i get to hit him! I’ll do your little battle, okay? _Just stop!”_

The God took him by the wrist in a bone crushing grip, his hands feeling like they were made out of the hardest metal, bruising Leo’s skin wherever they touched. He looked the boy dead in the eyes and Leo saw fire, a fire of passionate angry defiance, blazing behind his irises like a furnace. 

“No. The son of Zeus’s act cannot he forgiven easily. You will no longer be fighting me, mortal— _you will fight eachother”._

As soon as the last word was uttered Leo hit the ground, feeling like he was still in Kratos’s grip even though the god’s hand was gone from his wrist, and he was nowhere to be found.

The ground trembled—No, it _quaked._

The forest floor was moving under his feet, trees falling left and right, wildlife scurrying out of the way. In the midst of this chaos, Leo stumbled to Jason who was clutching his head on the shifting ground, and hurried to his side.

Giant walls of stone shot up around them, forming a circle higher than Leo could see and maybe a mile in diameter. The ground beside the stone churned with the movement.

And then just like that, the chaos stopped.

The walls were in place and there was no sign of the god, but the ground stopped shaking and the birds stopped squawking, the forest regaining normalcy. 

“Jason?” Leo’s eyes are squeezed shut and watering from the dirt that had been kicked up, he can’t open them without the sharp pain of little rock fragments shifting on his eye.

He feels around the ground until his hand settles on what he thinks is Jason’s leg, proven to be so from the groan that came from him afterwards.

“...Leo? Can you—shit, can you open your eyes?”

“No, the dust got in them, get me water?”

“Yeah. yeah, sure.”

He can hear Jason scramble to get up and walk away. Hopefully they were trapped with some water in here at least.

Now that the adrenaline stopped, the pain was starting to set in. Leo’s righthand wrist hurt like a motherfucker; the pain spiked every time he moved, like there was iron clamped around his bone.

If he could see, he would be able to tell that the whole thing was beginning to turn blue, as well as the fact that he was bleeding out of multiple little cuts on his face and elbows.

Jason came back, he put his hand on Leo’s arm and inspected the injuries with a grimace. Truth be told he wasn’t better off, and that the blow Kratos landed to his head was proving to be more serious than he thought.

The world was a little tipsy turvy for Jason, and the boy had to focus on the ground when he walked so he wouldn’t trip, a major headache was starting to creep into his temples, and he was bleeding from a gash on his cheek. He was bound to have a concussion. 

“I’m back.” Jason hand’s were wet. Good, he must have found water. “Can you....do you want me to pour it or can you do it yourself?”

Leo gave him the most deadpan stare he could with his eyes closed.

“R-right. I’ll, uh, do it.”

And then cool water washed over Leo’s face, and he craned his neck to get it more to his eyes, eyelids fluttering in the effort to wash the dirt out.

After a little, Leo opened his eyes to a blurry world. Jason was looking at him with concern. 

“Does it hurt?”

It still hurt. “No, i’m good.....Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

It was clear Jason was, in fact, not okay. 

His pupils were dilated and his head swaying slightly, not quite focusing on Leo. But he had bigger problems to worry about. Like the fact that—

“Is that your shoe?”

Jason stared at him in confusion before holding up his waterlogged boot. “Yeah?”

What the fuck. “Ew—you washed my eyes out with water from your _shoe?!_ Jason—“

_“What else was I supposed to carry it with?!_ It’s not like Kratos blessed us with _cups_ or anything—“

“—That is _so_ gross, i’m probably going to grow eye mold now. I’m going to go _blind.”_ Leo huffed. 

Jason’s laugh was cut short as he hacked up a sharp cough from his chest, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. Leo took this moment to truly take in his surroundings.

The forest looked just like it had before, except for the stonewalls around them, circling them and penning them in. Leo wonders how high they are.

The walls looks to be made out of joined stone brick, so theoretically it shouldn’t be so thick. But, then again, it was god-made, so.

A voice rings out in the clearing, sharp and pained, sounding like it was coming from all directions.

_ “....Fight....” _

Leo remembered why they had been put here in the first place.

Jason had gotten to his feet a few yards away from him, searching for the source of the whisper even though nothing was there. When he registered the words he turned to Leo, and put his hand on where the hilt of his gladius would be, if it had not been thrown.

Leo backed up a few paces, clutching his lame hand and peering at Jason from under his curls. And _hey,_ that’s weird why is he—

Then, Jason saw unfiltered, blatant, fear in the boy’s eyes, and realized it’s because he thought....he thought.... _Jason was going to hurt him._

And fuck. That hurt. Jason threw his hands into the air, watching how Leo stills, before cautiously, approaching him again.

“We’re not actually going to...fight, right Jason?”

“No, of course not.” He said. Jason had to be _sure_ Leo knew that he would _never, ever_ hurt him. The fact that he _thought_ Jason would makes him sick. “We don’t have to fight. I’d never fight you. We just have to find another way out....”

That looked to be easier said than done.

Jason flew up to see if he could find the where the wall stopped, but after ten minutes he flew back down and confirmed that it just kept going, possibly infinitely.

They tried to dig out next, Leo had Jason break a branch off a tree to use as a shovel as they plundered the dirt at the base of the wall, but not to Leo’s surprise the stone extended downwards with the same rules. They dug five feet into the ground before deciding it was not worth the effort.

Nighttime came early for them, as soon as the sun went behind the barrier of the wall it cast a huge shadow on the entire place, making it hard to see. Realistically, it might’ve only been....five pm?

Leo leaned back on his hands, and sighed. Jason sat down next to him.

“We’re never getting out of here.” He huffed.

“Yes we will,” Jason reassured, “Besides, if i had to be stuck with anyone inside a massive stone arena, i’m glad its you.”

Leo snorted, resting his head on Jason’s shoulder. “Quite optimistic for the man with a nerve ending concussion—hey, don’t go to sleep on that by the way.”

“Why not?”

“I mean it’s completely fine if irreversible brain damage is your thing, but, that would make it _prett-t-y_ hard for me to love you.”

Jason chuckled and Leo could feel the vibrations from his neck. He turned his head to look down at Leo, exhaustion present in his eyes as he leaned down to press a gentle kiss to the boy’s forehead.

“We’ll get out of here tomorrow.” He whispered.

Leo would have said okay, but his mouth refused to open. He was so tired. The boy let his body slump into Jason’s, head resting on the man’s thigh as he almost instantly went to sleep. 

* * *

Morning didn’t come as it usually would. 

Because of the stone walls, it wouldn’t grow light outside till about 12pm he guessed, so Leo and him would just have to deal with the dim light until then.

It became apparent that they needed to take a step back from trying to find an escape and instead work on patching up the injuries they both sustained.

Leo’s eyes healed fine, if not just a little red, but Jason could see how he cradled his right arm whenever he worked on something, struggling to do anything with his left since it was not his dominant hand. The cuts on his face had scabbed over but the ones on his elbows kept reopening as Leo did carelessly worked.

He was not the only one with injuries; Jason’s headache came full fledged the next morning, because although he fended of the sleep as long as he could last night, he still must have fallen asleep at some time because he woke up in the morning face down in the grass.

Not only that, but where Kratos had hit him on his cheek was now swollen and bruised, and Jason’s pretty sure if he doesn’t wash it soon it’ll infected.

He has to physically restrain Leo from working on his pulley system to get him to address the injuries.

“Jason the quicker we get out of here the quicker we can treat them, okay? My wrist isn’t out main priority right now.”

“It is our main priority if it doesn’t get any better. I know it hurts you.” Jason chastised. 

Leo frowned at him and turned his cheek, begrudgingly sticking his right hand out to Jason for him to inspect.

Jason had gotten a few lessons from the Apollo campers, and after feeling around the skin he concluded that Leo might’ve fractured a few of his bones, and maybe a finger or too when he fell. The chances of healing that correctly here, with no medical supplies, was grim.

His entire wrist was an ugly blueish purple, the spots had bloomed even bigger overnight, the worst of the bruises were in the shape of large meaty fingers. 

Jason had to bite his cheeks to quell his anger. 

But the cuts weren’t too bad. He guided Leo to where he had found the small running creek the day before and they both washed their cuts. 

Jason’s cheek stinged when he touched it, he could feel it painfully throbbing along to his heartbeat. Turns out the God of Strength throws a good punch, who could’ve guessed. Leo pulled a couple bandages for him out of his toolbelt and taped them to his face as best he could.

Leo was eager to go back to working on his pulley, but Jason stopped him as he encountered yet another problem. 

The both of them hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning, and Jason’s stomach was rumbling.

Leo rolled his eyes at Jason’s hunger and left him to go work anyway. He had always favored the big picture over his needs.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason spotted a brown bushy-tailed squirrel scurrying across the forest floor.

_ No..... _

He wasn’t that hungry yet.

He spent his free time conjuring a few more ideas to escape, but none of them seemed to work. 

First, he tried to call Tempest. He must have tried around ten times before getting the notion that the storm spirit was not coming, or maybe, he couldn’t hear them at all. Either way, Jason had no mystical steed to take him and aleo home.

Next, admittedly embarrassing as it was, he tried to contact his Father. His prayer went a little something like this:

_ Hey dad, it’s uh, your son—y’know, jason? Oh, haha, you know it’s me, you only have one son....Anyways, as you can see i’m in a bit of a predicament. I was wondering if you could  maybe stop playing whack-a-mole with the mortal’s lightning towers for a second and come help me?  _

_ xoxo, Jason. _

Needless to say, he did not receive an answer. 

The last thing he tried was simply closing his eyes and pretending like the walls just....went away. Like he could manifest that happening or something. 

But when Jason opened his eyes, the walls were still there, as tall and intimidating as ever.

Leo didn’t seem to be getting anywhere either, that much he could tell by the frustrated yells, pacing, and occasional thrown hammer. 

They both settled down for another night of dreamless, hungry, sleep.

* * *

Jason had now gone over forty-eight hours without eating something and he thinks he’s starting to lose it a little.

Meanwhile, Leo started a tally-system on the wall of how many days they’ve been trapped out of a paint-like red clay they had found by the creek.

But even Leo was starting to feel the hunger set in. 

He took more frequent breaks on his work, resting in small intervals to catch his breath so he didn’t faint right then and there.

Leo had begun designing a pulley system to bring him up the wall. At the moment, it was a mess of ropes and a makeshift chair made of tarp, held together by mostly duct tape and knots. 

Jason asked why he couldn’t just fly Leo  up the wall whenever he needed to. 

Leo said that he needed a way to get up there without Jason, in case he was doing something.

He took that as a sign to get off his ass and get busy. 

Though he’s not an engineer like Leo, Jason can still pull his own weight in making a shelter for the two of them.

He plucked a surprisingly long and wide tarp from Leo’s toolbelt and pulled it taut between the branches of a big oak tree from the center of the arena, creating a tent-like structure in the branches. Jason supposed it would be better to sleep in the tree than the ground, incase it rained and he and Leo would have to sleep in a puddle. 

The sun passed over the stone wall for the third time, marking the end of their limited daylight hours. Leo crawled back from his work at the wall, tired and dejected looking. Jason wished he had food for him.

“Jason this is hopeless.” Leo said, crawling into Jason’s weird tree-tent, cradling his wrist tenderly.

“It’s not hopeless. We’ll find a way out, i promise.” Jason’s stomach growled and the sharp pain interrupted his words. “H-how did your pulley turn out?”

“It works, for the most part. I’ll need you to fly up and jam part of it into the wall tomorrow, that is, if the wall can be broken. I’m going to try and chip away at it, see how thick it is. From what i felt, there’s no mechanical mechanisms behind it, which kind of makes sense, given this is Kratos, god of strength. I don’t think he’s used to using his head.”

Jason hummed and pulled Leo closer, careful not to bump any of their cuts and bruises together. He was warm, _so_ warm compared to the coldness of the arena. The lack of sun decreases the temperature around them by about ten degrees, Jason estimates.

His hair is matted and Jason can tell it’s starting to get tangled. He runs his fingers through it, carefully picking apart the growing knots as Leo huddled further into his chest.

Leo’s lips brush against his skin. “I’m so hungry.” He whispers.

Jason pauses. “Me too.” He twirls a chocolate curl around his finger. 

Below them, Jason heard a soft thud as something hits the ground.

As Jason bolts up, Leo is tossed off his chest, yelping in pain as his hand hit the wood. 

There was no time to be concerned with his hand though, as Jason hopped out of the tree and onto the ground in one swift movement, using the air to buffer his fall, he looked around.

The night was quiet now, but Jason heard what he heard. Someone was here. 

Bronze sparks crackled in the air around him, almost like a warning, Jason took one step forward and—

_ Crunch! _

He jumped back and readied his fists, only to notice what he’d stepped on, a hint of foil glinted in the dim moonlight. 

Jason has stepped on a....granola bar...?

Yep, it was a Nature’s Valley Oats and Honey granola bar, now crushed, laying on the ground in a place where Jason _swears_ it wasn’t before. Was this the thing that made the thud?

“What is it?” Leo’s frantic whisper sounded scared and alarmed, and Jason was reminded of how he had accidentally hurt Leo when he sat up. He grimaces to himself. 

“It’s....food.”

“...What?”

Jason uses the air to propel himself back into their tree, presenting the crushed granola bar to Leo.

There was about a one second interval where they just stared at the bar in dazed awe, before completely ripping it open like half-starved savages.

It was crumbly, and kind of stale, but that didn’t seem to matter as Jason and Leo shoved the little bits of granola into their mouths, moaning at the flavor, too tired and too hungry to question it.

“Gods above.” Leo sighed over the granola bar, having no shame in eating the crumbs that fell onto the tarp.

Jason nodded his head in agreement. At least he didn’t have to eat that squirrel.

* * *

There were eight red tallys on the wall now.

Leo had since discovered that the wall was in fact _not_ invincible, and through nails and hammers he managed to chip away a dip into the stone, one foot in diameter and eight inches deep. It was progress, but dismal progress.

The food from the third night had become a regular occurrence. Granola bars, or fruit cups, or beef sticks would fall from the sky occasionally, keeping the both of them fed.

It must be a daily gift from the gods, considering Jason and Leo still weren’t battling each other, and there sure wasn’t enough food in one mile of land to keep them fed. Not that they wanted to eat squirrels anyway. 

Jason began working on a floor for their treehouse thing, considering most of the escape plan was up to Leo, and he didn’t wang to be yelled at for being lazy.

But to be honest, though he wouldn’t admit it aloud, Leo was losing hope for an escape. Maybe the proposition wasn’t escapable.....maybe Leo would have to fight Jason. 

He doesn’t want to. Gods he doesn’t want to. But if it came down to it, Leo supposes he would have to be the one to go. He would have to let Jason kill him, and the walls would come down.

The wall was already enough of an enigma as it was. Leo’s not sure if he can actually dig through it, and he sure as hell doesn’t know what would be on the other side. He wishes there was a way to know.

....Maybe, there is.

If he thinks about it, when the sun passes over the rock, there’s still got to be some rays that shine over the rim of it. Gods, is there some equation to tell the thickness of something by it’s shadow?

Or, since he’s in the same part of the forest as he was when they first came across Kratos, technically the walls would have shot up on some of the nature wouldn’t it? 

If he goes around the perimeter and finds a tree that’s been _flattened,_ he’ll know that the wall is at least a couple feet thick. But if it’s just been _chipped_ off, it can’t be any thicker than a foot.

Leo writes down all his observations onto the wall with the red clay.

Walking around the perimeter of the walls, Leo notices something familiar glinting in the sun. 

Crouching down on his knees, Leo inspects it. 

It’s the tip of something, metal, but no longer than two inches before it disappears into the wall. 

_ Jason’s gladius._

Leo’s eyes widen with the realization. 

When Kratos had knocked it out of Jason’s hands it only flew a couple hundred feet behind them, so it makes sense that it would be in the confines of the arena. Gods! Why didn’t he think of this earlier?

Leo gave the metal a tug, before letting go and falling to the ground with a gasp. It cut him. 

It’s not like he’d ever been on the recieving end of Jason’s blade before—he didn’t know he kept it so sharp. 

Leo pressed the small cut into the fabric of his shirt, watching with dissapointment as a dark red spot grew on the gray fabric.

“Jay! C’mere!” He yelled, loud, so that hopefull Jason could hear him if he wasn’t too far away.

Within a minute, the wind whooshed around him and Jason landed on the ground beside him, breathless, and letting out a small and alarmed, “What?”

“Your sword. It’s here.” Leo pointed to the metal and Jason crouched over it, trailing his fingers along the blade.

“Think we can free it?” Jason asked.

“Dunno. Not sure it would even be worth it.”

“Of course it would be worth it!” Jason snapped. “It’s my blade!”

“Yeah, so? What would you use it for? _Killing me in my sleep?”_ Leo snarled.

Jason took a step back and his mouth fluttered open and close, before settling on closed. “I would never do that. I just think it would be useful, is all.”

Leo wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I’ll start excavating it tomorrow.”

* * *

It rained on the seventeenth day.

Jason held Leo as they both watched regrettably as the red clay drained off the walls into the water, washing away all of Leo’s tally’s and measurements like it was watercolor paint.

* * *

On the twentieth day, Leo had chipped away enough of the wall on his pulley to where he could sit in the hole he’d created. He was two feet in by now, and not any closer to knowing when the wall stopped. Maybe it didn’t.

On the other hand, Jason’s gladius was almost out of the rock. Only the handle was trapped now, leaving the rest of the sword to stick out bluntly, an edge that Leo had cut himself on many times, and would probably continue to do so many more. 

Jason finished the flooring on the tree house, crafting it out of wood he’d blown from other trees using small jolts of controlled lighting. Leo swore he would blow his eyebrows off with that shit one day. 

The food hadn’t stopped coming either, even if it was still boring old granola and fruit cups. But hey, sometimes they would get a bag of doritos or a bottle of sprite.

Not only did they have a treehouse, but Jason had gone what Leo liked to call “full Tarzan mode” and crafted them little bowls out of lightning-zapped clay and a big bowl to boil their water in before drinking it. 

All this comfort was nice, but they were still nowhere near close to escaping, and Leo grew more anxious as time ticked on, marking every time the sun swept over the little circle of sky above them.

They could still do this, right?

* * *

“Hey babe.” Jason greeted, sitting down to where Leo was chipping stone away on the spatha. The handle was nearly out by now.

“Hey.” Leo gritted. Jason knew better than to disturb his work.

“Are you taking a break anytime soon?”

Leo could hear the smugness in his words and had to stop himself from impaling himself on the gladius right then and there. Didn’t Jason _know_ not to disturb him when he’s working?

“No, Jason. I’m busy trying to get _your sword_ out of a giant wall of ridiculously hard godly _rock_ , so.”

“Fine then. I guess i’ll just eat all of these....fried dough things by myself.”

Leo whipped around and sure enough, in one of Jason’s stupid little clay bowls, was a steaming hot pile of little square shaped fried pastries, flaked with powdered sugar on top. 

Leo thinks a little drool might have escaped his mouth. 

“Sopaipillas!” He dug into the bowl, biting down on the soft bread and melting into it’s sweet taste. It tasted like sugary unicorns and fluffy pillows and rainbows. _Heaven._

“So-pee-pees...?” Jason asked. Picking one up and blowing on it.

“Sopaipillas.” Leo said. “It’s a spanish thing. It’s basically a fried dough snack with pumpkin and sugar. Gods, I can’t believe you _found_ these.”

Jason shrugged, happy that Leo was happy, snd cautiously bit into the sopaipilla, grimacing as it burned his tongue, then moving it around in his mouth until it cooled off.

(Leo forgot Jason can’t eat food like he does)

It felt good to eat _real food—_ Leo’s no complainer, but he was getting pretty tired of crumbling Oat and Honey granola bars.

Once the pastries had cooled off, Jason devoured more than half the basket, licking his fingers clean. Leo was prefectly fine with that, he’d already gotten his share and he wants to make sure Jason eats well. Can’t have him losing his body, now can he? 

When they were finished, it was just Leo, Jason, and the two-foot gladius sticking out of the rock. I mean really, couldn’t the sword have just landed a few feet closer to them than it did?

Leo kicked it and the blade twanged. “Can’t you just pull it out by now?”

“I can try.” 

Jason got up and dusted himself off, situating his hands on the least sharp place on the blade, near the hilt. 

He gave it a few strong tugs, but it wouldn’t cut loose until about the fifth one, where Jason promptly fell on his ass and the blade went flying over his head, landing handle up in the ground. 

“Huh.” Leo said. “Well that worked surprisingly well.”

* * *

Jason’s pretty sure they’d been trapped in the arena for about two months now. 

Work was dismal. Jason mostly kept Leo entertained now, as they sat thirty feet in the air in the now five foot deep hole leo had created in the stone, which also became the place they sheltered at when it rained. 

Nothing abnormal had happened lately except that they had been gifted a bottle of 3-in-1 shampoo last week, found lying in next to creek. (It was hard to be grateful)

All of their injuries had healed weeks ago except for Leo’s wrist, which was still hurting. It wasn’t as bad as it once was though, the bruises had healed up, but Leo still kept his hand in a makeshift sling to keep it out of the way, as the fractures and breaks had not. 

“I’m bored.” Leo said, his rock chipping tools cast aside him.

“I know, me too.”

Leo still looked pretty as ever, Jason mused. Even if he was skinnier than he used to be, and his hair smelled like 3-in-1 shampoo; his skin looked like it was made of bronze and brass, and his curls were longer than they were before they got trapped too, resting in front of his face and threatening to brush his delicate shoulders from time to time. 

Jason reached out and brushed them from his eyes. Leo scooted himself closer and hooked his arms behind Jason’s neck, sitting dangerously close to him in the small cave-like tunnel. Jason appreciated how his hands were warm on his neck. 

Jason connected their lips, going along with the gentle push and pull of the kiss, accidentally knocking his nose into Leo’s. Playfully, Leo’s tongue slid over Jason’s teeth and he pulled back to laugh, before sliding back into his mouth with more persistence.

And to think, Jason thought as he implored Leo’s mouth and rested his hand on his soft waist, some immortal had asked him to _end_ this. 

(Jason would rather end himself)

* * *

Leo broke the wall.

It happened maybe three months into their stay at the arena, still not having contact with anyone outside besides the anonymous food drops.

He had tunneled six feet into the wall at this point, and was begging to lose hope, until he strikes the rock with his hammer with the usual strenghth and—

A light shone through.

A _light_ , through a small hole the size of a penny, shone through the _rock._

Leo swung his hammer agrressively at the wall, the last few layers of stone clattering away in thin sheets until he made an opening the size of his head.

There was just sky.

Leo looked down through the opening, where ground should be just thirty feet below, but it was just.....gone. empty.

All around the arena, there was just nothing. 

Leo slumped his back against the cold stone tunnel he had been digging for months, letting the soreness creep through all of his limbs, letting the realization that all of it had been for _nothing_ , just as it was nothing that was behind the stone wall.

Leo cried. 

* * *

Jason didn’t know what to do when Leo turned up before the sun went over the wall, quiet, eyes downcast, body tense like a string pulled tight. 

Leo hadn’t found anything outside of the wall. 

He showed Jason the tunnel, and told him he was sorry, as if it could _possibly_ have been his fault, and that Jason could _possibly_ get _mad_ at him for that. 

Jason saw his tear tracks, and the way he carried himself like he was ashamed he couldn’t pull off the impossible, and told him it was okay. They would find another way to get out.

But really, Jason’s not sure if there is another way out. 

It’s been months since their last word from Kratos; that eerie whisper on the first day that made Jason’s mind go blank and his spine shiver, _“fight.”_

Jason would never fight Leo though, can’t he understand that? 

Real strength is in protecting the ones you love. Real strength is persisting with them, even when things get rough. 

Knowing that didn’t get him and Leo and closer to getting out of the arena.

* * *

Jason had already lost track of the days when he found it.

Well, not so much _found_ it, as it _found him._

He was walking around the arena for some food drops to bring back Leo, who had not left their treehouse in quite some time, when something hard had hit him on the head.

(Seriously, is he ever going to stop getting head trauma?)

Jason’s eyes nearly bulged out of his skull when he saw what it was. 

Laying in the grass, rebounded from where it had bounced off Jason’s skull, was a small, golden drachma.

Jason snatched it up and clutched it like it would disappear if he didn’t.

Running back to Leo, he alarms the boy in the tree house with his alertness into coming down, looking at Jason hazy-eyed and with the mild irritation that comes with being woken up from a peaceful nap.

“What?” He snapped.

Jason said nothing, just held the golden coin above his head as he caught his breath.

Leo’s gasp did not escape him and he felt the boy pluck the coin from his fingers, running his hands along it to tell if it was real just like Jason had.

“It just fell on my head.” Jason said. “I think it was a gift from beyond the arena, like the food drops.”

Leo nodded his head rapidly, eyes brimming with newfound excitement that had been void ever since tunneling through the wall had been a bust.

They both ran to the creek, diving into the water knees first. Jason used the air to pick up small water particles and hold them steady, like an artificial mist, and eventually glimpses of a smooth rainbow appeared over their heads. 

Jason held the drachma up into the light before flipping it into the water.

“Oh Fleecy, please accept this offering and do us a favor, show me....someone at camp half-blood.”

(The camp name felt odd on his lips, he had not the need to say it in a while.)

The drachma plopped into the water with a little splash and the mist formed a smoke-like screen in front of them.

Jason caught glimpses of what looked like to be the infirmary and a couple demigods, but something with the Iris message was wrong. It kept.....glitching, pieces of the picture floating in and out of place, multiple voices cutting through at once. It sounded like a radio out of signal.

“What’s happening?” Leo tugged on part of his hair with worry. Jason didn’t know what to do, there wasn’t anything he _could_ do. 

Parts of the message still got through. 

_ “—llo? Can—.....//u....hear us? ...ason? Hello—......//.....” _

It might be a one way call. Jason decided to explain their situation anyway, in case a few key words got translated over to them in the call.

“It’s Jason, look me and Leo are trapped in an arena enclosed by a stone wall. Kratos put us here when we left for the junkyard, we’ve been here for almost four months—“

The iris message cut out, the mist fell from the sky andback to the ground, the water clinging to his ratty shirt. 

One second there was silence, and the next it was filled with the sound of choked sobbing. It’s his own. 

Leo puts a hand on his back, comforting Jason as he wept into his hands, still sitting in a kneeling position in the creek. 

They can’t get out of here. 

* * *

“Jason.”

“Yeah?”

Leo was laying next to him, head propped up on a makeshift pillow of torn tarp and packaging peanuts pulled from his tool belt. He looks wistful, and Jason knows he’s been thinking too much for his own good lately.

“What if we don’t make it out of here?” He asks. 

It’s the question they’d both been avoiding for the past month, ever since the Iris message failed to go through, and they hadn’t seen any sign of help come for them from the outside.

They had to face reality at this point. It was just Jason and Leo, and only one of them could ever actually leave this place.

Still, Jason had to have hope. He would live here for the rest of his life if he had to. Jason would never....he couldn’t even _imagine_ Leo dead.

“We will get out of here.” Jason reassured, though his words were hollow.

Leo knew that they were hollow too. 

They both settled down for another day of doing nothing put passing time, watching as the sun moves over the wall, as they always did, and adding another tally to the calendar they kept inside the treehouse.

When Jason felt himself slipping into sleep, he barely recalls Leo pressing a slow, barely tangible, kiss to his forehead. Jason almsot pulled himself out of his sleepy stupor, but he figured he would just talk to Leo in the morning.

The frogs in the creek sung them a hollow lullaby. Just like every night.

* * *

Jason woke up to the birds chirping and singing, like he did every morning. He rolled to his side and clutched empty air. 

_ (He must already be up....) _

Jason got up slowly, taking the time to stretch his limbs before he climbed out of the treehouse, using the ladder Leo installed instead of flying himself down and—

The walls were gone.

Jason saw this as he exited their shelter; all around him was normal forest. The trees stretched on for miles and the sky opened up vastly around him, instead of concentrated in the center. 

And it was eerily, deadly, silencing quiet. Only the birds singing, and Jason’s footsteps. They were the only sounds in the entire forest. 

Jason couldn’t wrap his head around it. The....the walls were _gone_.

And leo was gone. 

....And Jason was the champion.

**Author's Note:**

> okay this death is validated because in my mind leo’s actually fine after this and he was saved by Kratos, thinking he “proved his strength” (by choosing to save jason or smth)
> 
> (i would have edited more, but my eyes hurt)
> 
> But yeah, Leo jumped through the hole in the stone wall. ☺️🖤


End file.
